Thomas Breen Photo
CMT Chair Kim Harris: How does the neighborhood benefit?
How will local bids for geothermal and political power translate into a more empowered Newhallville community?
That question arose repeatedly at the latest gathering of the Newhallville Community Management Team.
Members of the CMT raised those questions at a monthly online gathering Tuesday evening — first when Yale representatives pitched a greener campus temperature control system, and then when a Democratic Party stalwart announced a forthcoming ward committee recruitment effort. The CMT convenes residents who have long fought for more resources and respect for their neighborhood from the city’s major academic institutions and political actors.
Earth Power
Yale Community Affairs Associate Karen King joined architects with the firm Ballinger Tuesday evening to present on a proposal to build a geothermal heating and cooling system beneath the forthcoming Physical Sciences and Engineering Building by Whitney Avenue and Edwards Street.
The construction is slated to begin this coming summer if the city approves of the project. It would entail drilling about 190 bores into the earth’s soil, reaching up to 850 feet below ground. The bores would circulate fluid below-ground, leveraging the difference between the above-ground weather and the soil itself in order to change the indoor climate of Yale buildings. (Read more about the proposal here.)
All in all, the project would help the university significantly reduce carbon emissions associated with heating and cooling many of its science buildings, the presenters said.
Kim Harris, who chairs the management team in addition to running Harris and Tucker preschool, jumped in with a question: “How will this positively impact the people who are in Newhallville?”
King responded that the forthcoming construction will make the campus “more walkable” and accessible to the public. Stephen Brown observed that geothermal utilities require fewer above-ground buildings, creating more space outside.
Most of all, said architect Bradford Crowley, a geothermal system would reduce “the burning of fossil fuels,” mitigating climate change and causing “the air to be cleaner.”
“I get it, I get it,” Harris nodded in approval. “This will not generate any earthquakes or anything of that nature, right?”
“That is correct,” Crowley said. “This is not to be confused with systems that drill thousands of feet. … You wouldn’t see any effect underground.”
Harris nodded again. She explained how the project might seem from the outside: “They’re at the top of the hill, and they’re digging. How will it affect the people at the bottom of the hill?”
After hearing the presenters’ answers, she said, she believes the project could serve as an educational experience for neighborhood children.
“How do we get our kids involved in this? Because this is the way of the future,” she said. “Our kids absolutely have to be introduced to this, because it’s vital to the survival of how we live.”
She asked that Yale representatives stay in touch with the management team about ways to keep community involved.
People Power
Later in the meeting, lifelong Newhallville resident Barbara Vereen updated neighbors on upcoming Democratic Party ward co-chair elections on March 5 — and offered a glimpse into the inner workings of the most widely supported political party in New Haven.
The elections, as Vereen explained, will result in a pair of representatives for each ward in the city within the local Democratic Party. She noted that there are no contested co-chair races in Newhallville, although there are in several other neighborhoods in the city.
Facing no competition, Vereen, a co-chair herself for Newhallville’s Ward 20, will serve another term alongside a new co-chair: Latoya Agnew, who is running to replace Oscar Havyarimana.
After the co-chair elections, Vereen said, she and Agnew will embark on efforts to rebuild Ward 20’s Democratic ward committee: a group of ward residents who help determine which candidates the co-chairs will endorse in city elections. A number of ward committee members have passed away since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, she said.
Katurah Bryant raised her virtual hand. She said it’s her understanding that, when city Democrats convene to make their official endorsements, “the ward chairs can vote according to what they perceive is the best choice.”
She was alluding to the fact that two co-chairs for each ward technically have the power to endorse whomever they want on behalf of their neighborhoods, regardless of who is actually the most popular candidate among ward committee members or in the broader community. While most ward co-chairs have a practice of endorsing the candidates whom the majority of their respective ward committees support, some have decided whom to support independently of their committees.
Given this system, “how can the community’s voice be heard” in the Democratic Party? Bryant asked.
“In Ward 20, our ward committee gets together before any election,” Vereen responded. “We have the candidates come in and talk to our ward committee. Our ward committee has a discussion and we do a straw poll.” Then, Vereen said, at the citywide party convention, the co-chairs support the candidate who has received the most support among the ward committee.
Vereen said she plans to recruit new members for the ward committee among people who have reached out to express interest.
“I will put you on the list if you’re interested,” she told Bryant, who said that she is.
Is there an expert on geothermal? How could Yale direct some of the off peak energy to the homes nearby in Newhallville and near Whitney Avenue? It would be a way for Yale to help New Haven, as it struggles with rising heating bill.